amica813

Hey Kymie - do you know why that happens? I keep having that happen to a thread I started!

Hey all! Had my 6 month check-up on Monday - appointment was at 9:00 and I didn't see the doc until 11:20! GRRRR! At least I saw him! He said I'd only lost 8 pounds in 2 months, but I think he was wrong. They've had trouble tracking my weight the last couple times and never have the right weight from the visit before. Usually the nurse catches it but she wasn't there this time. I thought I was in the green zone at 4.5ccs, but had him push it up to 5ccs. With my "package deal" I get 6 months of free fills, so I didn't want to waste one - HA! I think NOW I'm in the green zone - I'm definitely eating a lot less and have to be very conscious to chew chew chew and put the fork down between bites! I went back to protein shakes for breakfast because 1) I end up eating on the run and it's hard to eat scrambled eggs or oatmeal in the car and 2) I finally started experiencing the morning band tightness. I am having problems today, though. I woke up with excrutiating pain in my chest and back around 2:30 - this is now my norm for "heartburn". I took some Maalox chewables and paced around for 45 minutes moaning and crying and then tried to go back to bed. Normally by this point the pain has subsided and I can go back to sleep - not today! I got the chills and couldn't get warm, the pain stuck around and I was nauseous. I got up and got ready for work and the pain was still there. I took some more Maalox and a Prilosec, no help. I got to work and was hungry but didn't feel good so I tried to eat some yogurt, got about 3 bites in and headed to the bathroom. Coffee, water, and yogurt all came up and pain was worse. I kept hoping it was just gas, but was scared by this point. I had an appointment to see the PA at the chiropractor so I headed over there to ask her about it. She listened to my heard and did an abdominal exam and seems to think it might be my gall bladder. She gave me some trigger point injections in the knotted muscle in my back, and as she was rubbing the medicine in there was a big gurgle and the pain seemed to subside. YAY! By this time I was starving so I had a bowl of egg drop soup (life saver!) and all went well. I had some hummus with a few tortilla chips, went pretty well. But then I tried to eat a couple bites of cantaloupe and now I feel like I'm dying again! The pain's all up front in my gut now and I definitely can tell it's gas, but nothing I take is even touching it! That's my sob story, but here's the real point... I know gall bladder stuff can flare up after lap-band, have any of you had problems? Should I let this go as just gas and wait to see if there's another incident or should I call the doc and see what he says? Some of my symptoms fit, but others don't. Oh well! Hope you all are having a great day. BTW my Savannah goal is 58.5 pounds. I'm at 55 today!

BOUGHT PANTS AT OLD NAVY!!! BOUGHT PANTS AT OLD NAVY!!! I'm a little excited by this particular NSV, can you tell???

Wow gang - how great we're all doing! I'm sorry I've been MIA lately... I'm not getting my email updates of posts and can't seem to access our group on my iPad. It tells me I have messages and I'm subscribed, but when I try to look at the posts it tells me I don't have access. GRRRR! Anyway - I've been plugging along and finally hit 50 pounds AND onederland! YAY! It's been probably 10 years since I left onederland and it's great to be back! We were on vacation two weeks ago and I was worried I would blow it, but I just kept sensible eating in mind. I think I'm in the green zone, though because I certainly feel restriction and I have to work hard to avoid the stucks! I had an issue Saturday at the mall with some pizza - should have known better but my choices were protein heavy cheese pizza or super fried meat nuggets in a sweet sauce. I'm also having issues with understanding my portions!!! The Publix by my office has a great salad bar with deli meat available and I always take too much!!! I think, "That doesn't really look like much, I'd better put a little more on there," then I end up throwing 1/4 - 1/3 away! Yay for not eating it, but boo for wasting the money! I also had a BIG NSV this weekend. While I was stuck at the mall (car work at Sears) I decided for the heck of it to look at some of their Misses Lands End clothes. I bought a large (14-16) skirt and tops!!! Holy moley!!! The skirt was full so I could get away with it; my hips and thighs are keeping me in 16/18 pants depending on the cut. If it were up to my waist I'd be in a 12! HA! I haven't made the bathing suit plunge yet because I'm hoping I'll need an even smaller size by September which is usually when we go to the beach. I have a doctor's appointment next Monday, but I don't think I'll get a fill. I probably should though, because I think this appointment is the end of my "free fills for 6 months"! I had post-op blood work done on their request, so it will be interesting to see where my cholesterol and other levels are now. I know my blood pressure is down. I promise to be on more often. Have a great day everyone!!!

Hi Savannah - I'm in the North Atlanta area.

Hi gang! I've missed you! Something's up with my account settings and I'm not getting the email alerts anymore. Also when I try to use the App on my iPad or phone it says I'm not authorized for this forum. I hate I'm behind on lots of progress! I missed my 5/25 goal of 50 pounds, but that's okay it was my stretch goal. My initial goal was to be at 50 pounds by 6/21 and I'm at 49 pounds now (202.5) YAY! I think I'll do a mini stretch goal and try to be in onederland by 6/21. My 18 pants are getting loose, so I guess in another 5 pounds I'll need to go shopping again! I did have an AWESOME NSV yesterday. I went to the Starbucks near work (haven't been to that one in probably 9 months); the guy behind the counter said, "Did you used to come in here a lot?" "Wow! You've lost a lot of weight! You looked familiar but there was something different!" I do have to confess I've been avoiding my exercise like the plague though. Shame on me!!!

n2a - I'm so jealous AND PROUD of your 180! Can't wait to get there myself! Keep it up everyone!

Oh friends, I'm in a slump! I've been keeping up with posts and taking all the support and success stories to heart, and now it's time to dump. JDI - I'm feeling your pain with the sweets! A couple of months ago I ate an Oreo and thought it was the nastiest thing ever! I was so proud that I had broken my sweet tooth. But as time has gone on (and DH has asked for more sweets for himself) I find myself eating more and more sugar. I know the last couple of weeks have been emotional eating but that's no excuse. I'm in the middle of some drama with my family and I have to go visit them this weekend. As the trip has gotten closer, I've put more and more crap in my mouth. I think I'm close to the green zone since my last fill two weeks ago. I've had more and more stuck episodes, I've got reflux problems, and I've had to throw up more in the last 2 weeks than the entire time since surgery. But I keep powering through with junk! For example, I LOVE iced sugar cookies and I bought a big one today as a "treat" (Ha! Not a treat if you eat this stuff every day!) and it was awful! But I still ate it! I could even feel myself on the verge of being stuck but I polished it off anyway! I'm so scared because I always end up sabotaging myself on diets. This is the biggest weight loss and longest I've kept up with anything, but I'm scared to death I'm going to let it all slip down the drain. Plus not only do I feel bad emotionally when I eat the crap, but physically too! I've been so proud of my scale and non-scale victories, but I really feel like I'm ata mental plateau. I was doing well with my exercising and enjoying it, my hip has felt the best it has in probably 3 years, so what do I do? Stop working out! I know if it's to be, it's up to me! And food is my rotten crutch that I need to get rid of, but I'm just in a funk about it all. Thanks for listening and congratulations to all the size 16s! I did by a size 16 dress and a regular ladies XL top that made me feel great...now I just have to get my butt back on track so I don't start going I the other direction. Thanks for listening! Love ya'll!

Welcome mrshep12! Hey peeps! Hope you had a great weekend! I was a BAAAAD girl and ate lots of things I shouldn't have, but I had my 4th follow-up and fill today and the doc was very happy with my progress and wants me to write a testimonial. I'm down 40.5 pounds since surgery and my fill today puts me up to 5 cc. My next checkup is in 2 months. My NSV for the weekend was that I was able to stand for 3+ hours for an event we were doing! Might not seem like a big deal, but with my arthritis and the extra weight I was usually in misery after 30 minutes on my feet. I was also able to walk from the far end of the parking lot yesterday which would have been impossible before. YAY! I'm back on the bandwagon for food and exercise this week! I'm still hoping to be down 50 pounds by 5/25!

One more post, then I'll leave ya'll alone for today! I need some green zone guidance. When I got my last fill, I thought I was definitely there (and almost worried I needed a slight unfill). Since then, I've had a couple of stuck and PBing episodes (not terrible). Now that a couple of weeks have gone by, I'm not sure I'm there. I can still eat a decent amount as long as I take it REALLY slow! The stuck issues have all been due to eating too fast rather than too much, I think. So what do you think? Should I go for another .5 cc at my next visit (5/4) or should I hold off until the following month? Have a great weekend everybody! One of our friends I haven't seen in over a year is coming up for the weekend, and we're going out to eat with some other friends I haven't seen since pre-surgery. Should be an interesting time!

Okay gang, I'm falling back into some bad habits and I need to break them. My hubby bought a bunch of Easter candy on sale after Easter, so the Reese eggs have been calling my name... and I've been responding! I kept thinking, "I'm eating so much less of everything else, I can have some chocolate here and there." But this week, here and there turned into EVERY DAY! I wasn't gorging (like I might have before surgery) but I still certainly didn't need to eat candy every day. I signed back up for WW online and have been tracking my points... this was the real eye opener with the candy. I haven't been using too many points on real food, but the candy was putting me at/above my points daily limits! Time to cut that out! I really signed back up to WW so I could get my pre-surgery measurements. Here's my BIG NSV - I've lost 2 feet!!!! Based on my pre-surgery measurements and the ones I took this week, I've lost 24.5 inches overall! So I didn't set a goal with you all last time, but this time I need to! I would like to be at 204 by June 1, that's 10 pounds in 5 weeks. I also want to up my exercise to 5 days a week. I haven't been good with that, but I'm going to get better! My original goal when I had my surgery was to be in onederland by June 21, but I think I'll be past that (just not sure by how much.)

Meredith - That's fantastic!!!

NJ2NC - I bought a ProForm Activator V7 Vibration Training Machine. The DVD comes with 3 workouts, Upper Body, Lower Body, and Whole Body. The Lower Body is the one that just about killed me. Last night I did the Whole Body and was okay. What's great about it is when you're done working out you can just lay on it and get the massage. The workouts end with a calf massage for 60 seconds which feels GREAT! I plan to take my measurements weekly since starting to see what sort of impact it's having, so I'll report the results here.

So this is why I don't exercise... (Oh, and before I forget, I'm in the Atlanta area!) Over the weekend, my vibration plate exercise machine arrived. I have really bad arthritis in my left hip which makes most normal exercises really painful. I had seen one of these machines at a Home show a while back and got swept into the fad. I waited to buy one, though because they're normally $2000+! I found one that had great reviews on Amazon for $400 and bought it. Then I thought "I'd better make sure this is okay to use with the lap-band!" I started reading and found some posts of panic about how it can shake your band loose, etc. etc. But then I saw a post about how there's no way it could shake the band loose, if it had that much power it would be scrambling all of your internal organs, so I thought, "I'll listen to the voice of reason!" I put the machine together and did the upper body workout from the dvd Saturday. Wow did I feel it!!! So last night (around 10:00) I did the lower body workout. It really focused on your core. I had some troubles with the lunges because of the hip, but other than that no worries... Fast forward to midnight, I woke up with a little bit of nausea and some minor pain in my abdomen. I chalked it up to acid reflux and the killer workout and tried to get in a more comfortable position for about the next 10 minutes. The pain gradually got worse. I got up and walked around a little, the pain got worse... so I took a pain pill left from surgery and went downstairs to let the dogs out. THE PAIN GOT WORSE!!! I was crying and moaning and shaking and praying and panicing that the machine had caused my band to slip. I was ready to head to the emergency room, and then the voice of reason kicked in... if my band had slipped, or flipped, or whatever I wouldn't have been able to swallow the pain pill right? I moaned and cried for the next hour (somehow my husband slept through it all!) and it finally started to go away and I was able to go back to bed. I'm fine today. The best thing I can figure is that my ab muscles were swollen from the workout and were pressing on the band. Has this happened to any of you after a kick-butt core workout? I was scared to death! Hopefully the next workout won't be as bad, and I'm on my way to a six-pack!

It's amazing to me the different way our bodies work. I notice most of you have troubles with a tighter band feeling in the morning. My problems are definitely in the evening. If I'm not careful and chew chew chew and eat SLOWLY I get stuck (and since my last fill it all comes up). I also notice lots of problems with chicken. I'm okay the first time around, but I've found that meat leftovers of any type do not like me! I don't know if that's because it's too dry or what. We went out for Mexican last Friday night and I had pork carnitas, which went fine. I tried to eat leftovers on Monday and had terrible problems - my fault though, I was in a hurry and tried to cram it down before a meeting. So I tried again last night and even though I took it really slow and chewed carefully, it was no good! After two nights of carnitas going the wrong way, my throat's a little raw!

I've only been banded a little over 3 months, but I definitely get that "full" feeling when eating... IF I eat the right way! I've dieted most of my life and know from Weight Watchers, etc. that it takes a while for the full signal to go from your stomach to your brain. I find if I eat the way a banded person is supposed to eat (30 minutes for the meal, chew chew chew, put fork down in between bites, etc.) my brain does get the signal. If I eat too fast, not only do I end up sliming and vomiting (this is new since last fill 2 weeks ago), my actual stomach ends up feeling pretty miserable too, just like if I had gorged myself before surgery. I've been lucky though, I don't have a lot of troublesome hunger since surgery. In the morning, or if I'm running late for dinner, my real stomach does get rumbly, which is good for me to distinguish between physical hunger and head hunger. Hope that helps!

Horsegirl - Thanks for the oatmeal recipe - I LOVE IT! I made a Stevia simple syrup with maple to go on top (need to figure out how to thicken it up but flavor is good!) I'm back on the losing track! After last week's .5 cc fill I'm up to 4 cc and am definitely feeling restriction! I could probably stand to feel some more though, because most of my problems have been from eating too fast and not chewing enough. I was rushing around last night trying to cram in some dinner before a meeting at church and it didn't go so well. I ended up having to pull over on my way to the meeting to get rid of some slime! Blech! Learned my lesson though! I'm down 37.5 pounds. My goal is to hit 50 by my niece's graduation on 5/26 and 60 by the June 21. We go to a comic book convention every year and most of our friends there I haven't seen since either last year or at least pre-surgery. What a shock it will be for them! I've also been slowly cleaning out my closet. It's killing me (in a good way) to toss all those clothes on the giveaway pile, but there's only so much cinching a belt can do! HA! My next step is to get more exercise. I know I use my arthritis in my hip as an excuse, but every time I try to walk or do anything with any sort of impact I end up paying for it that night and can't sleep for the pain. I bought one of those vibration plate machines and it should be delivered on Saturday. The reviews have been really good, so we'll see how it goes. Thanks to everyone for the positive posts! If nothing else, we've got each other! Keep up the good work!

Horsegirl - I have NO idea! I asked the nurse and she said to add in a protein snack... but I have no idea when! Guess I should have taken home some of the boiled eggs from Easter dinner - HA! I'm having trouble eating all my food now. I usually do oatmeal pumped up with peanut flour and 2% milk in the morning; 2 oz. Cabot 50% lower fat cheese, 7 Oscar Meyer deli turkey slices, and 7 low fat Triscuits (I know, carbs - boo... but I need the fiber!) for lunch; sometimes a low fat/low sugar yogurt for snack; and meat (4-6 oz.)and a veggie for dinner. I don't really feel that hungry between meals and I get full at my meals, so where should the extra go??? My doctor wants me to eat rather than drink my proteins so shakes aren't a good option, but I may have to throw one in for a while!

Happy day after Easter everyone! Sorry I've been lurking and not posting lately! I have been reading though and picking up some great motivation and advice from you all! I went for my 3rd fill today. I thought I was at 4.5 cc already, but turns out I was only at 3.5. Doctor said he would only put in .5 cc today. He had some trouble finding the port (which even though I was numbed up, it freaked me out to see the giant needle jabbing in and out and hearing it hit the outside of the port! ) but finally did. Holy wow was it hard to drink the water though! I think this might be it for a while on fills. I never really had irritation or problems with the other two, so I guess we're close now. I did ask the nurse about how many calories I should be eating. She made a big deal about not counting calories, but sticking to 60-80 grams of protein plus fruits and veggies. But she did finally say that should be around 1500 - 1800 calories. Not even close to the 1200 I was shooting for according to myfitnesspal.com. So, to all of us who are at a plateau - let's start bumping up the calories with some more protein! I made it to 35 this morning. 6 pounds since the last fill, but not the 10 pounds I had lost the month before. I know, slow and steady! We'll see what this latest fill does (since 3 sips of water almost caused me to have to pull over for a bit!) Keep up the good work everyone!!!

It must be a 30/35 pound thing! I've been hovering between 30 and 33 pounds for 3 weeks now! I've increased my exercise and I'm eating less but just can't seem to shake the pounds. I have noticed I've been eating more carbs and fattier foods (lots of cheese, some fried wings here and there, salad dressing) so I'm sure that probably has something to do with it. I usually stick to 3 small meals though... maybe I need to bump this up. I go for another fill on 4/9 so we'll see how that goes. I will say that more people have commented to me how great I'm looking and what a great job I'm doing since I hit the plateau, so I guess I should take some motivation from this!

Great job! I'm mad at myself for not taking measurements before I started. I know I'm down at least one size, but it would be nice to have the inches as another reference point... and reason for a celebration!!!

Hi all! I was banded on 1/9/12 and just had my first fill today (4 weeks post-op). My doctor left me with .5 cc in the band at surgery and my fill today was 2 cc for a total of 2.5. I felt a little queasy right after my visit, but I think that was just the sight of the giant needle (don't be scared!). I've been sipping some hot tea and just really feel "full"! I do have a horrible pain in my left shoulder/side... probably what I get for not having to deal with bad gas pains right after surgery. HA! Maybe I should get up and walk around a bit. I am curious about where he stuck the giant needle... it was like 3 inches over and 2 inches down from my port site. I figured he'd go straight in at the incision site. Any thoughts on that? Good luck everyone!!! Keep us posted on your first fill experiences.

Second fill went well this morning. Both the doctor and the nurse seemed shocked and amazed that I had lost 10 pounds since my last fill 4 weeks ago... isn't that what this is all about? I am now up to 4.5 cc. I'm definitely struggling more with getting it down than last time. I think this 10 ounce cup of soup is going to take me an hour to finish!!! I checked the BMI chart and I am no longer in the "Morbidly Obese" category!!! HURRAY! I'm scheduled for another checkup/fill in 5 weeks. Keep up the good work everyone - we're doing great!

I get my second fill tomorrow. I've been doing fairly well so far I think, but it seems over the past 2 weeks I've noticed I'm eating faster and more. The fill will put me at 4.5 cc.